Amar Singh detained at DNDGangrape Case: SP workers raise slogans against MayaNoida, January 9Samajwadi Party’s general secretary, Thakur Amar Singh, who came to Noida via the DND flyway was detained by the Noida police at the toll plaza at 1.25 pm today.
Amar Singh wanted to visit Garhi Chowkhandi village in Sector 71, where 10 young men of the village are accused of having gangraped a young MBA student on Monday.

3 die in IGI Airport accident
New Delhi, January 9
Three labourers were killed while two were injured when they were buried during an excavation work at Terminal-3 of Indira Gandhi International Airport today morning.

MCD schools to check kids for thalassaemia
New Delhi, January 9
Students of municipal schools will now be checked for thalassaemia along with anemia. The check-up has been started as a part of corporation’s thalassaemia control project.

Vehicles queue up at a petrol station in Gurgaon. (Right) People were seen buying fuel in bottles at an HP petrol station in New Delhi on Friday. Tribune photos: Sayeed Ahmed/ Mukesh Aggarwal

STRIKE CALLED OFF LATE EVENING
Chaos prevails in Delhi petrol stations
New Delhi, January 9
Although the oil strike was called off by the evening, nearly 85 per cent of the petrol pumps of Indian Oil Corporation and Bharat Petroleum in the national Capital went out of stock during the day, leading to long queues at the few fuel pumps that still had stock.

Petro-products rationed in Gurgaon
Gurgaon, January 9
In view of the strike by officials of oil companies, deputy commissioner Deepti Umashankar has ordered the rationing of petrol and diesel in the district so that all residents get a reasonable quantity of petroleum products to meet their requirements.

Noida petrol pumps wear barren look
Noida, January 9
The three-day long strike of the staff and officers of government oil companies brought Noida and Greater Noida to a virtual standstill.

Moily stresses on citizen-centric admin
New Delhi, January 9
Chairman of the second Administrative Reform Commission Veerappa Moily today interacted with Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, cabinet ministers and senior bureaucrats in the secretariat on several facets of the city government.

CNG in Faridabad, Gurgaon soon
New Delhi, January 9
CNG will be available in Faridabad in the next few days and in Gurgaon in a fortnight as three gas companies today resolved their differences at the Supreme Court.

Delhi cabinet discusses oil crisis, availability of food items
New Delhi, January 9
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today instructed the Delhi police to permit those vehicles loaded with oil or other petroleum products waiting at the inter-state border to enter the Capital. The issue was discussed in the state cabinet meeting.

CPI (M) activists protest against the Israeli military strikes in Gaza, in New Delhi
on Friday. Tribune photo: Mukesh Aggarwal

Blinding fog slowed down traffic on the Delhi-Jaipur National Highway in Gurgaon on Friday afternoon . Tribune photo: Sayeed Ahmed

Light showers predicted for today
New Delhi, January 9
Delhiites woke up to a cold morning today with the minimum temperature recorded at 5.6° Celsius and the maximum at 20.2° Celsius. The maximum temperature was recorded at 21° Celsius yesterday.

Cops stationed at petrol pumps after reports of fights
New Delhi, January 9
As strike by the employees of oil companies entered the third day today, the dwindling oil stocks at petrol stations and long queues outside them seems to be becoming a nuisance for the Delhi police as well.

Woman raped in Gurgaon
Gurgaon, January 9
A 35-year old woman has alleged that she was raped by Kharak Singh early in the morning here today. She is working as maidservant at a house in Sector 37 and is resident of Sarhol village.

AIIMS entrance test on June 1
New Delhi, January 9
The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) will conduct entrance exam for admission to MBBS course on June 1.

Blueline kills biker
New Delhi, January 9
Blueline buses claimed their fifth victim of the year, when a 21-year-old motorcyclist came under the wheels of the privately owned vehicle in the city on Friday.

1 caught for DDA flat scam
New Delhi, January 9
The Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of the Delhi police today claimed to have arrested a suspect from Rajasthan who was allegedly involved in the DDA flat scam.

1857 hero remembered
Faridabad, January 9
The Congress and various social organisations paid tribute to the 1857 war hero, Raja Nahar Singh, on his 151st death anniversary at a function here today.

Noida, January 9
Samajwadi Party’s general secretary, Thakur Amar Singh, who came to Noida via the DND flyway was detained by the Noida police at the toll plaza at 1.25 pm today.

Amar Singh wanted to visit Garhi Chowkhandi village in Sector 71, where 10 young men of the village are accused of having gangraped a young MBA student on Monday.

Amar Singh said he had come to Noida to highlight and lodge Samajwdi Party’s protest against the state government’s failure in law and order.

“It is very unfortunate that law and order is going from bad to worse in UP and it shameful that the honour and dignity of women is not safe in a state government headed by a woman Chief Minister,” Amar Singh said.

The district administration had imposed Section 144 in the area. Amar Singh, who walked about 300 m at the head of a slogan-raising crowd of about 500 from Delhi side was detained when he told district magistrate Sherwan Kumar Sharma and SSP Navin Arora that he would like to visit Garhi Chowkhandi village in Sector 71, the venue of the alleged gangrape on Monday night.

The Samajwadi Party general secretary, when asked whether he was defending the Yadav youths of Garhi Chowkhandi village accused of having raped the Delhi girl, said “I am not defending anybody. If their guilt is proved by all means give them the severest punishment. All I am saying is do not implicate innocent people”.

The district administration had deployed about 500 cops from a number of kotwalis, including two battalions of PAC, fire tenders, police water cannon vehicle and ambulances had also been put on duty near the DND toll plaza.

Local Samajwadi Party leaders like Balvir Singh Yadav, B.S. Verma, Narinder Singh Bhatti and others said in UP there is no law and order, especially in Noida and Greater Noida.

“Whenever some heinous crime like murder, rape, loot, dacoity takes place, the police harasses and implicates innocent people. The police has similarly implicated 10 youth of Garhi Chowkhandi village in a rape case”, they alleged.

“The fact is that some persons were raping a young girl near Hindon River when some young boys of Garhi Chowkhandi, who were returning after playing a cricket match, had caught these people in a compromising position. The village young men had beaten up these people and shooed them away from the spot. The strangers had gone to Noida via Hindon Pushta where they lodged a false report against Garhi Chowkhandi youth that they had kidnapped them from Great India Place Mall, Sector 18 Noida”.

“A youth, Amit Panwar had enticed this girl from Delhi whom he and his friends had gang raped.”

The village elders said some young men from well-to-do Delhi families had made Noida area a den of vices and crime. They often bring young women and enjoy themselves in cars or outside after sunset.

Perhaps, education and plenty of money these young people have and the custom of late marriages these days are spoiling our younger generation who want to satisfy their sexual needs this way. The adverse effects of TV, fashions, blue films etc have further compounded the situation. But we shall not allow these spoiled brats of urban areas to tarnish the name and atmosphere of our villages,” they said.

New Delhi, January 9
Three labourers were killed while two were injured when they were buried during an excavation work at Terminal-3 of Indira Gandhi International Airport today morning.

According to a DIAL spokesperson, the accident took place around 9:30 am at the construction site close to the new fire station.

The five workers, who were digging near the column that collapsed, were buried in the debris.

The labourers were taken to a hospital by EPC Contractor (L&T) that had employed them. Pushpender and Jatinder died on the spot, while Ravinder succumbed to injuries. The other two are stated to be out of danger.

According to the police, the victims in their mid-20s hailed from Katni district in Madhya
Pradesh.

Meanwhile, DIAL and L&T officials are in touch with the families of the deceased and providing medical aid to the injured.

DIAL has also asked L&T to investigate the incident. “We have also asked L&T to investigate the incident and ensure that such incidents do not occur in future. Supervision is being enhanced to further improve the safety at the sites,” DIAL said in a statement.

New Delhi, January 9
Thieves decamped with valuables worth Rs 10 lakh from two flats in Jahaj Apartments in the Paschim Vihar area of West Delhi last night.

Even the guards manned at the entrance gate of the apartment could not stop the theft. However, a complaint has been lodged.

According to sources, thieves broke into flat number 325 and 225. The flats are owned by Rishi Raj, a BSNL engineer, and Arvind Sharma respectively. While Rishi Raj has gone to visit a relative with his family, Arvind Sharma had gone to Punjab to attend his father’s funeral.

The neighbours discovered the theft today morning when they saw the broken locks of the flats.

The police believes that the thieves were aware that occupants of the flats were out of station. It seems that they searched the flats patiently without causing any ruckus. “In flat number 325, the thieves broke open a safe and decamped with valuables and a handycam. They did not look for valuables anywhere else. They also helped themselves with apple juice kept in the refrigerator. They probably knew the owners would not return that night,” said a police officer.

Meanwhile, the police is questioning the gatekeepers and recording the statements of apartment staff like plumber, gardener and sweeper. The gatekeepers do not allow any suspicious entry to the society and the police believes that the thieves could have jumped the walls to enter the flats.

New Delhi, January 9
Students of municipal schools will now be checked for thalassaemia along with anemia. The check-up has been started as a part of corporation’s thalassaemia control project.

“Children who are found with hemoglobin around six will be checked for thalassaemia also, as chances of suffering from thalassaemia increases in such circumstances,” said chairman of MCD public health committee
V.K. Monga.

“Thalassaemia is a genetic disease which occurs due to fault in RBCs,” added
Monga.

Thalassaemia screening for children will be conducted at all its schools at the time of admission, and will be followed by routine check-ups.

The MCD is currently running anemia control programme in all its municipal schools. The civic body had launched thalassaemia control programme in September last year in Hindu Rao Hospital, Kasturba Gandhi Hospital, Swami Dayanand and Girdhari Lal Hospital.

As part of the control programme, which is being implemented in three phases, the civic body has also started pre-natal screening in all its maternity homes. This will also include setting up of pre-marriage or marriage counseling clinics and holding of regular mass screening camps.

“We will be providing testing kits to all our 33 maternity homes for starting regular screening for thalassaemia traits by this month. Our six major hospitals will also implement the scheme,” informed
Monga.

Apart from that, the civic body will also launch awareness programme for school children and their parents under the School Health Scheme.

New Delhi, January 9
Although the oil strike was called off by the evening, nearly 85 per cent of the petrol pumps of Indian Oil Corporation and Bharat Petroleum in the national Capital went out of stock during the day, leading to long queues at the few fuel pumps that still had stock.

Even emergency service vehicles like ambulances and mortuary vans had to wait for their turn in long queues at refuelling stations.

“I have ten ambulances, out of which, four need fuel. We had filled petrol in the other six vans yesterday itself. I am scared that if the strike continues for another four to five days, it is going to be really difficult because we do not keep oil reserves,” said, Rajkumar Gaur, owner of a private ambulance agency in Sarai Kale Khan.

However, thankfully, this is not the case with all the hospitals. A medical officer of Safdurjung Hospital said, “We have our own fuel pump stations in Laxmibai Nagar and so we are not facing any problem yet, but the situation can be terrible if the strike continues for long.”

The situation at most of the fuel pumps of the city was very chaotic. With ‘no petrol’ boards at most of the fuel pumps, auto rickshaws, motorcyclists and car drivers made a beeline for the few petrol pumps that were serving the customers. People were also seen carrying cans and bottles to the pumps.

Even the petrol pump owners looked worried as demands were high and their stock less.

“Every customer is asking for tank full of fuel, but it is difficult. So to avoid any problem, we are not providing more than five litres of petrol or diesel to one vehicle,” informed Preetam Kumar, a petrol pump owner in Connaught Place.

Meanwhile, due to the scarcity of petrol, the city roads today had thinner traffic, as people preferred not to use their personal vehicles.

With the situation getting worse, those residing in the satellite towns are more worried as most of these residents are dependent on their personal vehicles.

“It is getting very difficult. I reside in Noida’s Sector-55, but my office is in R.K. Puram and there is no direct route to reach there. I hope that with the implementation of ESMA (Essential Services Maintenance Act), the situation comes under control,” said Shubham
Bansal.

However, the situation is better for those using buses or the metro, as they are running their services normally.

Gurgaon, January 9
In view of the strike by officials of oil companies, deputy commissioner Deepti Umashankar has ordered the rationing of petrol and diesel in the district so that all residents get a reasonable quantity of petroleum products to meet their requirements.

The DC has fixed the one-time filling limit for each type of vehicle and directed the petrol station owners to give petrol and diesel to ambulances and fire brigades on a priority basis so that essential services are maintained.

She has asked both SDMs to enforce these orders in their respective areas. As per the orders, a bus or truck can take up to 50 litres, car or jeep up to 20 litres, three-wheelers 10 litres and two-wheelers 5 litres at a time.

Petrol station owners would keep full record of their sales and food and supply department officials have been asked to check these records from time to time to ensure compliance of the administration’s decision.

These directions will remain applicable in Gurgaon district till the crisis is over.

Umashankar has also appealed the people to observe patience and not to indulge in panic buying of petro products as the oil and domestic gas availability in Gurgaon was enough to meet the requirements of the people here.

She said the government was making all efforts to end the crisis situation created due to the strike of the oil companies’ officials.

The DC has also directed the food and supply department officials to keep a check on the domestic gas agencies in the district and ensure that they did not resort to blackmarketing of gas cylinders in this time of crisis.

She warned that anybody found involved in blackmarketing of gas and petroleum products would be strictly dealt with.

The DC further stated that the loading at Rewari depot would continue till 11 pm on Friday instead of the usual closing time of 6 pm.

Noida, January 9
The three-day long strike of the staff and officers of government oil companies brought Noida and Greater Noida to a virtual standstill.

Almost all the petrol pumps in Noida wore a barren look with boards like ‘No Petrol’ and ‘No Diesel’ greeting people coming with the hope of getting petrol or diesel for their vehicles.

There are 35 petrol pumps in G.B. Nagar district— 12 in Noida, 4 in Greater Noida and rest on highways and in towns like Dadri, Surajpur, Javer, Jarcha, and Phase-II. All petrol pumps of Indian Oil, IB, BPCl ran out of stock today. Some of these had been working day and night till yesterday.

Only the petrol pumps run by HPCL—three in Noida and one Phase-II— which had not joined the strike, were serving customers. According to Sanjiv Kumar, manager of Fill and Drive petrol pump in Sector-32, the district administration had asked all petrol pumps to keep at least 2000 liters of petrol and 5000 liters of diesel in reserve. The SDM of Dadri, Piyush last evening ordered petrol pumps to ration the supply of fuel. No two-wheeler should be given petrol or diesel for more than Rs100, three wheelers for more than Rs 200 and cars for more than Rs 500, he said.

Ghaziabad: Six states have not received the supply of cooking gas cylinders for the past three days, as because of the strike over one lakh cylinders could not be refilled in plants of Indian Oil, BPCL and APCL situated on Loni road. These six states are UP, Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, and Jammu and Kashmir.

New Delhi, January 9
Chairman of the second Administrative Reform Commission Veerappa Moily today interacted with Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, cabinet ministers and senior bureaucrats in the secretariat on several facets of the city government.

He categorically said a separate chapter of recommendations concerning Delhi would be included in the Administrative Reform Commission report, keeping in view the city’s set-up. The city’s assembly can legislate on all subjects in the state and the concurrent list except police, law and order and land.

The Commission in one of its reports has already recommended the transfer of traffic police to the authorities of metropolitan cities.

Speaking to the media, Moily stressed on the need of making the city government’s administration more feasible, citizen-centric and accountable.

Earlier, Sheila Dikshit while interacting with the Commission said there had been a constant demographic change in Delhi. Delhi cannot have powers like other states. “It must have police excluding security, DDA and MCD under its control,” she said.

She also elaborated on the complexities being faced due to the existing multiplicity of authorities, which was the biggest speed-breaker in development process.

New Delhi, January 9
CNG will be available in Faridabad in the next few days and in Gurgaon in a fortnight as three gas companies today resolved their differences at the Supreme Court.

Under the agreement reached before a Bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Adani Energy Ltd (AEL) will be the retail supplier in the two NCR cities in Haryana. Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) will supply CNG to AEL through Indraprastha Gas Ltd
(IGL).

IGL will just be the transporter as the CNG pricing will be done by GAIL. The compromise was reached between the three companies after nearly an hour of arguments by their counsel. Justices Arijit Pasayat and S.H. Kapadia were part of the Forest Bench that approved the proposal.

Adani’s counsel, Mukul Rohtagi, told reporters that his client had all the necessary system in place and was in a position to start the retail operations immediately upon receiving compressed natural gas (CNG) from GAIL through
IGL.

Senior counsel Ashok Desai and solicitor general G.E. Vahanvati appeared for IGL and GAIL respectively.

Subsequently, more companies are expected to start CNG retailing in other satellite cities in the National Capital Region (NCR)—Noida and Greater Noida. Haryana government has given permission to Haryana Gas also for joining the CNG retail trade in the state.

IGL today informed the court that Haryana was not approving its projects in Faridabad and Gurgaon. IGL and AEL said both of them had their systems in place in
Noida.

Haryana asked for report on
Expressway

In a case relating to Expressway projects that would decongest Delhi roads by diverting inter-state trucks traffic, the Bench asked Haryana to file a fresh status report within two weeks.

Senior counsel Harish Salve, who appeared for the Central Empowered Committee set up to monitor projects in forest areas, said work on the western peripheral road falling in Haryana had virtually come to a standstill.

Only 10 per cent of the work had been completed so far against the target of 61 per cent.

Night Safari in
Gt Noida cleared

Earlier in the day, another Bench, comprising the CJI and Justice P. Sathasivam, cleared the Night Safari project of the Greater Noida Authority.

The project would cover an area of over 100 acres and the animals would be confined to specified spaces.

The enclosure would be properly illuminated for night viewing.

The tourism project is aimed at creating awareness about environment and ecology, besides being source for recreation to the citizens.

As per the proposal submitted to the Central Zoo Authority (CZA), Safari India will be developed on the lines of the first night safari of the world in Singapore.

New Delhi, January 9
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today instructed the Delhi police to permit those vehicles loaded with oil or other petroleum products waiting at the inter-state border to enter the Capital. The issue was discussed in the state cabinet meeting.

Dikshit appealed to people to avoid unnecessary journeys and not spread panic in any case. She assured the government would take all measures to overcome the situation. The Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) had already been enforced on striking truckers and oil sector employees.

The cabinet also discussed the supply of essential commodities like vegetables, milk and food items had not been affected. Diesel and petrol was being supplied from 94 outlets of HPCL out of a total number of 400 outlets. Besides, 100 outlets of BPCL would also start supplying petrol and diesel from tonight. The cabinet has directed the administration to be alert and ensure that there is no black marketing and hoarding of essential items.

New Delhi, January 9
Delhiites woke up to a cold morning today with the minimum temperature recorded at 5.6° Celsius and the maximum at 20.2° Celsius. The maximum temperature was recorded at 21° Celsius yesterday.

With light cold conditions without much fog today, the Capital saw normal visibility and this gave respite to passengers heading for railway stations.

As most long-distance trains have been arriving on time now,
Howrah-Delhi Janata Express was restored almost after two weeks yesterday. Northern Railway spokesperson informed more trains might be restored in coming days if there was no fog.

Earlier, the Railways had cancelled about 13 trains till January 31 due to heavy fog. It was a similar story with the air traffic, with the DIAL confirming normalcy in flight movement.

Meanwhile, the Met office has forecast a partly cloudy sky with light showers in the night for tomorrow. The maximum temperature can be around 19° Celsius, while the minimum can be around
8° Celsius.

New Delhi, January 9
As strike by the employees of oil companies entered the third day today, the dwindling oil stocks at petrol stations and long queues outside them seems to be becoming a nuisance for the Delhi police as well.

The long wait in the queue and rationing of petrol has led to many incidents of manhandling at several petrol stations in the Capital besides the traffic snarls on the road outside these petrol stations. According to police sources, more than 20 incidents of tiffs have been reported at various petrol stations since last night. And so, as a precautionary measure, PCR vans and police constables have been deployed at more than 100 petrol stations today to ensure an orderly distribution of petrol.

The police had to be called at petrol stations in Karol Bagh, Rohini, Subhash Nagar, Paschim Vihar where situation got out of control after the waiting people got into arguments with the petrol stations staffs.

“Minor incidents of dispute and fight were reported at about dozens of petrol stations across the Capital. However, they were soon controlled by the police. The arguments were basically related to jumping the queue and long time being taken by the station staff to give petrol,” said a senior police official.

A PCR call was received last night about fight at a petrol station in Subhash Nagar on Najafgarh Road where a group of people had indulged into fist fight after the petrol stock dried up while they had been waiting in the queue for quite sometime.

“Nobody has been arrested and the matter was sorted out once the police reached the spot”, said a staff member.

Gurgaon, January 9
A 35-year old woman has alleged that she was raped by Kharak Singh early in the morning here today. She is working as maidservant at a house in Sector 37 and is resident of Sarhol village.

The woman claimed that she was waiting for a bus at Iffco Chowk when suddenly a white Innova car stopped near her. She asked the driver for a lift as many other passengers were also sitting in it.

However, while the driver dropped all other people at the Express Highway he allegedly took her near Tau Devi Lal Stadium, where he raped her inside the car and fled. She stated that she then went to her employer’s house and told him everything who took her to the Sadar Thana and registered a complaint.

Within eight hours police recovered the car and arrested the driver Khadak Singh.

New Delhi, January 9
The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) will conduct entrance exam for admission to MBBS course on June 1.

The prospectus and application form costing Rs 1,000 (Rs 800 in case of SC/ST candidates), inclusive of examination fee can be obtained against cash payment from any branch of State Bank of India from January 15 to February 21.

The prospectus and application form can also be obtained by sending a written request with demand draft worth Rs 1,050 (Rs 850 in case of SC/ST candidates) in favour of ‘M.B.B.S Entrance Examination-2009’ payable at New Delhi. The last date for submission of application forms is February 27.

New Delhi, January 9
The consequences of the strike of oil company employees are becoming visible in more sectors than expected.

The generation of power from the Pragati Power Station of Indraprastha Power Generation Cooperative Limited (IPGCL) has been completely stopped.

As a direct consequence to this, the availability of power in the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) area is also getting affected.

“NDMC is so far managing uninterrupted power supply to its consumers. However, if the availability of power from BTPS or Dadri Thermal Station reduces due to any reason, NDMC may have to resort to loadshedding,” said an NDMC spokesperson.

NDMC requested the residents of its area to cooperate by keeping their power consumption to the minimum.

New Delhi, January 9
The Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of the Delhi police today claimed to have arrested a suspect from Rajasthan who was allegedly involved in the DDA flat scam.

The suspect identified as Nathu Ram allegedly helped property dealers get PAN cards of people whose applications were submitted by them. But the applicants are not even aware of the DDA flats draw, said S.B.K. Singh, additional commissioner of police.